Roy Whitlow: 14 books

Magic squares it seems have been around for some 4000 years, possibly starting with the ‘Loh Shu’ square of Chinese legend. They have ever exercised the minds of recreational puzzlers and mathematicians alike; they have featured in art, architecture and books (both novels and learned writings)....

This is a dictionary that is extraordinarily different. It is the most comprehensive listing of French words and phrases associated with French food and dining you will ever see. A great many of the words listed simply do not appear in standard French-English dictionaries and yet they are in common...

This is a dictionary that is extraordinarily different. It is the most comprehensive listing of French words and phrases associated with French food and dining you will ever see. A great many of the words listed simply do not appear in standard French-English dictionaries and yet they are in common...

Words have fascinated many great men and women for centuries; Dr Samuel Johnson said, ‘Words are the signs of ideas’, while Rudyard Kipling said, ‘Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind.’ Words can be like music and entertain, they can sooth and excite and give pleasure;...

This is a dictionary that is extraordinarily different. It is the most comprehensive listing of French words and phrases associated with French food and dining you will ever see. A great many of the words listed simply do not appear in standard French-English dictionaries and yet they are in common...

The great philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein said ‘Logic is not a body of knowledge’. I would rather have it that logic is a clear way of thinking, of using knowledge. And that’s what you need to solve many puzzles and teasers. Another famous writer, Stendahl, said ‘Logic is neither a science...

Puzzles, quizzes, mind games, brain benders, teasers, riddles and the like have been around for thousands of years. Fascinating examples of mind benders can be found in Chinese, Greek, Roman and other histories, many that still test our skills today. There are many books of recreational mathematics...

Here are four tales of mystery; each one is fiction, but each is also based on a folk tale or a legend. 'The Red Hound of Pooley' is my invention, but there are numerous stories in many different localities of mysterious hounds or dogs, some stranger and some darker than others. In this...

In the mid-eighteenth century a dancing bear owned by Jonas Garbee was tormented and then killed by the villagers of Charford Payne. Garbee swore revenge. Now, strangely, at the annual Michaelmas Fair in Charford Payne they celebrate the terrible affair with a villager donning a bear costume and capering...

Four tales of love. In ‘The Tweed Jacket’ Raymond buys a second-hand coat and gets more than he expected. In seeking to resolve a mystery he finds maybe something that may change his life once again. Part of love is trust, but has Carly’s husband broken hers? In ‘A Strain on Love’ chance...

When Adam Winter arrived at Bristol’s Parkway station he didn’t expect to find a dead body and an injured man almost side-by-side, nor did he realise what a complex set of relationships he would find himself drawn into. A young fairly recent widower and author he meets a series of females that...

Gordon is a quiet and inoffensive man and an excellent draughtsman and designer, but he has three problems: an overbearing and unloving wife, a noisy neighbour with a noisy dog and no appreciation at all of his talents by his boss at work. However, his luck changes when, with a friend and work colleague,...

Benedict Mason, recently discharged from the British Army after a training accident, is a claims investigator with an insurance company in Bristol. He is ordered to do a fast-track course relating to diamonds and then to join a team charged with setting up a database on diamond theft and recovery....

Here we have five short tales of love: love found, love lost, love of place, love realized and love of a son. Love can be surprising and unexpected as Bonny Woodward discovers when she is mistaken for a shop assistant and eventually finds more than filo pastry in a supermarket. Across the sparks and...